Ch02
As Quinn wakes up, she sees Spark floating around scanning the rocks.
"What is it?" she inquires.
"I… I don't know. Not yet, at least. But there seems to be some Vex residue here…" Spark responds.
"The Vex!? Here!?" she exclaims.
"I don't know! I said it seems that way!" he replies.
This does not sit well, nor for anyone this news would get to. The Vex, locked up on their terraformed worlds, in Russia? Unthinkable!
After a long pause, she states, "Make contact with the tower."
"About that…," Spark responds, "that may be a problem. Wherever we are, I can't get a signal. I also can't get a transmat. You're going to have to find us a way out of here."
Acknowledging this, Quinn begins to look around, hoping to find a natural source of light.
"Be my flashlight, will ya?" she asks openly.
As Spark ignites, she notices hostile signatures on her motion tracker. Readying a rifle, she scans the immediate area for any sign of anything. Seeing nothing, she advances, leaving her burnt Sparrow behind. Dark walls and low lighting filled the cave-in, a tense and suffocating atmosphere. Rounding a bend in the cave, she came across something unusual – a Fallen sniper rifle, lying in the rocks. No body, just the rifle.
Indicating to her Ghost, he began to scan it. Noticing nothing truly peculiar about it, he advised them to move on, but she wanted to keep it to examine and study it. Strapping the rifle across her back, and tossing the empty rocket to the ground, they continued further down through the cave systems.
"Check for any Hive activity down here. They would certainly thrive in such an environment." Quinn advised.
"Nothing for miles." Spark replied.
Hearing this, they continued on. She kept silent for hours, sighting with her pulse rifle around every bend and corner. And yet, nothing. Nothing else in the cave systems but her, her Ghost, and the echoing of her footsteps. Finally, after these many hours, they were met with a fork in the system – two different paths, one seeming to go deeper underground than the other.
"Scan."
Nothing. Either path seemed as good as the other. Taking the path that had seemed deeper, they discovered a source of light from far down the passage. Seeing this, Quinn broke into a sprint, making a massive effort.
Upon hitting the end of the linear tunnel, she turned right and saw the source of the light – a dim and rusting Hive lamp. She sent her Ghost to scan it, detect for activity, all the while searching the room with her pulse rifle for hostiles.
"Hasn't been active for a long time, and I'm still not picking up any Hive signatures down here." Stated her Ghost.
Looking onwards in dismay, she realized what she hadn't upon first entering this room – it was not a cave, anymore. This was a part of a rusted Human array, buried somewhere.
Upon this realization, she exclaimed, "Find a computer! Maybe we can figure out where we are."
Spark fluttered around the space, searching for a computer.
"Nothing in here, but there's a faint power signature behind that door." He responded.
Looking towards the door, she realized it was bolted shut. Approaching it, she prepared an Incendiary Grenade to try to bust it open. Primed, she threw the grenade. Bouncing off the door itself, it slid to the ground a foot away, and detonated. Shielding her eyes from the explosion, she took her arm away to look and see the results.
"Lovely…" she stated, "It's no use, it's sealed. Can you do anything about it?"
"I can try." Spark responded.
He flew to the door, looking for a switch or a panel. Finding nothing, he scanned the door itself.
"It's not of very heavy material, you should be able to get it down with enough hits."
Hearing this, she unstrapped the Fallen sniper rifle, and prepared to shoot out the bolts. Locking onto the furthermost left, she fired, causing the bolt to go spinning out the other side. Seeing that this had worked, she repeated the process for the numerous other bolts until the sniper was empty. Thinking it was enough, she walked up and attempted to pull the door up.
"Stabilize, stabilize!" she shouted.
The Ghost rushed to her side, holding the door in place. She let go, and slid under, with her Ghost right behind.
She stood up, and was met with the decayed remains of numerous Hive soldiers, surrounding the equipment. Stepping over, they approached the source of power.
"Well, at least there's still a computer that works!" Spark commented, cheerfully.
Frustrated, still, she responded, "About as likely as that elevator working on the Colony ship." She gestured to the monitor, indicating to the Ghost to scan.
He followed, and approached the monitor.
"23 miles underground, amidst what was once a site for humanity to study the Hive. The records indicate that the Hive, not long after formation here, retaliated and killed the scientists."
"Who killed the Hive, then?" she responded.
"I… I don't know."
"Should we be worried?"
Taking a few seconds before answering, Spark said, "This is from a couple centuries ago, I think. We should be fine. I hope."
After taking a long look around the room, Quinn inquired, "Well, how do we get out of here, then?"
Spark flew away from the panel, and approached a different locked door. "This way." He proceeded to unlock said door, and they began through the complex.
Walking through the halls, they observed the countless Human skeletons, along with slightly less decayed bodies of Thralls and Acolytes. They passed a window, marked "TESTING". Inside, a chained-up Knight stood in the middle of the room, long dead.
"So, what were they doing here?" she asked.
"I'm not certain, but from what I could gather from the logs, they were simply trying to study them. This, however, suggests otherwise." He replied.
Disgusted, she decided it best to just move forward. At the end of the corridor, stood yet another locked door. However, through this one, the faint sounds of battle could be heard.
"What's going on? Hurry, open the door!" she exclaimed.
Spark flew to open the door, but instead it flung open and slammed Quinn to the ground. She got back up, and was met face to face with a Hive Knight.
"Shit!" she screamed, barely dodging the swipes of its blade. She ran behind it, stabbing it in the back with her knife.
As it cried in agony, she stabbed again, ending its life. She turned immediately to the now open door, witnessing a battle between the Fallen and the Hive.
"Well, it seems we've made it out!" Spark shouted over the sounds of battle.
She ran out, pulse rifle out, gunning down the nearest Acolyte and providing follow-up shots on a Knight. As she reloaded, she watched a Skiff quickly approach the battle. She noticed that the Fallen weren't shooting her, but only at the Hive forces. She thought it best to keep it that way, and ran towards the Knight, while throwing a Knife into its skull.
Two Vandal teams flowed out of the Skiff, followed by a Reaver Captain. The Captain approached Spark, who had hung back towards the door.
Spark floated back, still worried. The Captain noticed, and dropped his weapon, and lifted his hands to the air in peace. All the while, Quinn and the other Fallen were bombarding the Hive forces within this valley. She fired into Hive lines until her pulse rifle had run out of ammunition. She threw it to the ground, and ran head on into the Hive's lines. Throwing Incendiaries and knives, she fought hard.
Spark witnessed this, and while still not comfortable with the Captain, went into Inventory and popped her a Primary Synth. She saw her ammo count, and reloaded her pulse rifle behind cover. She nodded to Spark, then returned to the fight.
The canyon area itself ended in a cliffside, where the Fallen assaulted from. Opposite the cliff, the canyon went on for a mile or two, then turned beyond sight. All that remained in the Hive's frontlines were Acolytes, but a mass of Thralls sprinted from around the bend.
She continued firing, melting into the lines of Dregs and Vandals leading the assault. Acolytes went down, Thralls ran forward right into the blades of multiple Melee Vandals. As it seemed that the Hive forces would be relentless, she fell back to her Ghost and the Captain.
Spark was surprised to hear the Captain speak in English for the Guardian and her Ghost.
"We do not wish to invoke warfare with you. Our fight is with the Vex." Stated the Captain.
"The Vex?" responded Spark, "Then, why are you here in Eurasia?"
"We've retreated from Venus. They've pushed our forces to a breaking point, and we needed to regroup."
"Well," Quinn cut in, "We'd be happy to assist in the fight against them. We've heard reports from Venus. Vex portals opening up all across the surface. We've been meaning to investigate it, ourselves."
The Captain nodded with affirmation, turning back to the battle at hand.
"Do you have a name?" asked Quinn.
"Rekis." He responded.
"I'm Quinn, and this is Spark." She stated, "Now, I have a question for you."
Rekis looked back, awaiting the question.
"Do you happen to have any walkers?"
He nodded, and then signaled an inbound Skiff to drop a walker. As it hit the ground, she noticed the mark on it to be unfamiliar, and she realized that it was because she did not know what Fallen House it, or any of the troops here, belonged to.
It turned its cannon towards the rocks at the top of the valley's sides, and fired. A landslide ruptured, and the passage for the Hive had been blocked off. The remaining Acolytes and Thralls looked back on it. Angered, they returned their gaze to Fallen and rushed them. Quinn broke off from the Captain and equipped the sniper, landing multiple consecutive headshots. Acolytes hit the ground, and the Thrall turned to rush at Quinn.
She popped off a few pulse rifle bursts before Rekis stepped in and cut them down with his blades. One by one, Thrall bodies fell to the ground in defeat and in death. With this skirmish won, the Fallen rejoiced.
She then returned to Rekis to ask the question that had been nagging at her since the walker.
"What House are you a part of?" she inquired.
"We…," Rekis stated, "are a part of the Fallen House of Blood."
